Contact sheet of 2nd shoot

When analysing my first shoot, I realised what I wanted when photographing my second shoot.

This is a contact sheet of all of the photographs that I had taken during my second shoot:

Specific images:

For this photograph, I have experimented with posing the dolls and angling my camera. I think that this angling of this photograph has worked because it's very clean cut .. it's very clear that the rule of thirds has been considered whilst taking the image. However, the only problem I have with this image is the expression on the male character's face ... it is very bleak and there is no emotions there. In this scenario, he should be fearing for his life. The only way I could alter his facial expressions is through Photoshop.

Again, I have experimented with angling and posing. I feel that this image works really well however, my only issue is with the Barbie doll's hand ... it's just there doing nothing showing no body language whatsoever. If I were to take this photograph again, I would put a shield in her hand as this would give more atmosphere to the image.

For this photograph, I have experimented with angling my camera. I feel that this has worked, I like how only the Barbie's head is in focus. However, I feel that the Action Man is too blurred. The way I could fix this is to bring the two dolls closer together.

For this photograph, I have experimented with posing the female doll. I feel that this photo works BUT it's very bleak. There's not much going on other than the Barbie pointing her sword at you. The body language and facial expressions of the character is very plain and simply boring.

Again for this photograph, I have experimented with posing the female character and angling my camera. I really like this image because it's like the 'alpha-female' is pointing her sword at you. This addresses the viewer and involves them in the photograph. She makes you feel like the less-dominant character as she is above you in the image. Although the image has all this impact on the viewer, I feel like the overall image is not very atmospheric.

For this photograph, I decided to experiment with posing the doll in different locations. Although I really like what's going on in the image, I feel like the image is too light.

Because I liked this image so much, I decided to re-shoot it using a Neutral Density filter so that I could filter some of the light out (as changing the camera setting wasn't helping that much).

For this image, I experimented with the angling of my camera and the positioning of the doll. I tried to portray a 'victory' type stance where the character is at a higher position (in comparison to the camera) with the sky in the background. Overall, I don't really think that this image works, it's just too plain/ bland for my liking; the body language of the female is just too dull.

For this image, I decided to play around with special effects. Here, I tried to replicate blood in order to give the impression that the Action Man has been in some sort of fight. It also gives the impression that the male character has been defeated. Although I like the overall image, I don't feel like the 'fake blood' looks realistic enough. To create the blood, I used a syrup which was a very deep red in colour; however, when applied onto the dolls face it came out very opaque and not very real. If I were to take this photograph again, I would have tried to find something more realistic to apply to resemble blood (however, I would have to find something that also wouldn't stain).

In this photograph, I have tried to experiment with more than just two characters, the positioning of dolls and how I angled and photographed this scenario. I feel that this image works really well; it gives the impression that the three male characters are much weaker than the one female character. I also like how you can't see the identity of the female character - this gives a sense of mystery.

Lastly, in this photograph I have experimented with positioning the doll and the angling of my camera. I really like this image, it gives a real sense of victory and bravery. However, I don't think that the doll's head works very well being in the image along with the arm; it kind of jolts the sword off to the side and puts it off centre. If I were to take this photograph again, I would focus only on the sword ... make that the only subject in the image. 

Taking all of the analysis', I now know what I am looking to produce. 

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Final images: How I edited them

Image one

Image two

Image three

Image four

Image five

Image six

Image seven

How I added the Vignette effect using Photoshop

Firstly, I took the image and altered the levels to give the desired lighting and contrast combination:

Secondly, I selected the areas that I wanted to vignette then selected the feather option:

I then altered the feather level to 100 pixels:

Lastly, I altered the level of the selected area to create the Vignette effect:

I decided to edit these images the way I did because I didn't want to drastically change the image but I did wan't to make it look relative to my project. I decided to edit my images by altering their levels, desaturating them (to wash the colour out a little bit and to make the dolls skin look more realistic) and by adding a vignette.
All of these alterations combined created photographs that were relative to my images as they look very 'fairytale-like'.